Social Democrats reveal election manifesto

Published: 02 Sep 2014 09:29 GMT+02:00

UPDATED: Sweden's main opposition party the Social Democrats has revealed its election manifesto at a press conference at a high school in Stockholm, with a key focus on education and welfare benefits.

Reform job centres (Arbetsförmedlingen) to make them more useful to employers

Give long-term unemployed workers jobs with local authorities or in the voluntary sector

Increase unemployment benefits so that people previously earning up to 25,000 SEK a month will get 80 percent of their salary for as long as they remain entitled to claim this benefit (under current legislation this benefit is gradually cut the longer people remain unemployed for)

Guarantee young people a job, trainee position or educational course within 90 days of unemployment

Limit fixed-term contracts to a maximum of two years within a 5 year period

Immigration

All asylum seekers to have the right to an impartial appraisal of their specific case

All municipalities to share responsibility for taking in refugees

Put pressure on other EU member states to share responsibility

Education

Smaller class sizes for 7 to 10-year-olds

All children to start school age 6 (currently age 7)

Raise wages for teachers to attract staff to problem schools

Give more power to local councils to decide whether or not to allow free schools in their area, "to prevent over-provision and segregation"

Companies running free schools will be required to publish their accounts

Compulsory schooling for all pupils until the age of 18

More money for after school clubs, with a stronger role in helping children with their homework

Raise teaching standards by introducing tougher entrance requirements for those wishing to go into teaching and providing bigger resources for teacher training colleges

More university places and more courses for workers who want to continue their education

Increase the number of female professors and ensure research grants are distributed "in a gender-equal way", with rewards for universities that achieve this

Extra places in adult education

Family and welfare

Introduce a third month of paid parental leave for fathers

Raise child benefit by 100 SEK a month

Taxes for pensioners to be cut to the same rate as for workers on the first SEK 12,000 SEK of income each month

Sick benefits to be raised for middle income earners. Remove the time limit on sick benefits

Health and elderly care

All privately-run care homes to follow minimum staffing guidelines

Allocate more money to elderly care by increasing grants to local authorities

Introduce a law against selling care homes to the private sector at under the market rate

Guarantee that cancer treatment will start within 4 weeks of diagnosis

More training places for midwives

Patients with private medical insurance will not be allowed to jump treatment queues

Create 32,000 trainee jobs for young people in care sector

Housing

Introduce a bonus for construction companies that build small rental apartments or student flats

Give more capital to state lender SBAB to improve access to credit for new building projects

Earlier on Tuesday, an opinion piece by Stefan Löfven was published in Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper. In it he criticised the current ruling Alliance, highlighting falling school results, rising unemployment and the privatization of welfare provision.

Writing in Expressen, leading Social Democrat politicians Margot Wallström and Mikael Damberg said they wanted to collaborate across block boundaries in order to introduce a third paid paternity month for fathers.

The policy is also supported by the Liberal Party which is currently part of the governing Alliance, which so far hasn’t backed the idea, following strong criticism from the Christan Democrats.

"In more and more areas, it is becoming clear how stupid today's bloc policy is for Sweden," argue Wallström and Damberg.

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